The walnut extracts and cataplasms have been used during many years in popular dietetic medicaments.
The walnut tree contains at the bark, leafs or fruits gallic and catequic tannins, juglone, juglandine, carotene, inositol, pyrogallol, vitamin C and other substances.
It has been demonstrated that the walnut tree bark (Manchurian) contains mainly 5-hydroxi-1,4-naphtoquinones (juglone), 1,4,5-trihydroxinaphtalenes (hydrojuglone), glycosides of hydrojuglone, glycosides of hydroxi-α-tetralone and gallic derivatives of these glycosides. It is also known that the walnut hull is very rich in vitamin C and that betacarotene, B1, B2 and B6 have been found in the leaves.
The juglone is considered as a natural product having anti-microbial, anti-neoplastic and anti-parasitic action and has anti-fungal and antiseptic properties. Therefore, it can be found in different market products, including colorant compositions for hair and oil of satin walnuts. The juglone, prepared from walnut hull, is an active ingredient active in dietetic complements.
There are evidences that suggest that the juglone is a strong chemotherapeutic or chemopreventive agent. The therapeutic development Program, National Cancer Institute (NCI) evaluated the juglone in its search for the HIV-1.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,838, from October 2001, refers to an anti-fungal composition, of topical application, for the treatment and prevention of the human nails infected with fungi. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,838 describes that the extract with synergic effects contains a mixture of 10-15% of juglone extract from walnut hull with 20-30% of milled roots of Nardostachys jatamansi o Vetiveria zizanioides o Catharanthus roseus, because an extract of only juglone showed very little efficiency even in the long curing treatment and fungi-toxic effect.
To obtain said extract the walnut hulls were separated, washed with water and air dried. Then, they were milled and an extraction of juglone with solvents selected from acetone, alcohol and butanol was carried out. The solvent was removed from the extract and it was cooled to remove the waxes so that the juglone was partially fractionated.
The isolated extracts of walnuts described in the state of the art are based in the extraction of determined active ingredients with an anti-fungal, anti-microbial or anti-viral purpose, from a part of the tree whose active ingredient is found in great quantities.
There are anti-fungal compositions containing extract of juglone from walnut hull or compositions with a high concentration of vitamin C obtained from the tissues, walnut tree leaves, with a great content of vitamin C, among some of the most known.
The compositions comprising isolated extracts of walnuts present the drawback that it must be administered immediately after its preparation, said compositions having a short life because of the decrease of its effectiveness over time.
Therefore, because of the low stability of the isolated extracts of walnuts, the compositions containing them must be produced and administered within few days in order to provide a suitable effectiveness in the treatment.
Thus, said compositions based in isolated extracts of walnut have a limited application over time, because of the low stability of the juglone in the extract, and they are exclusively of anti-fungal, anti-microbial or anti-viral type.
Therefore, there has not provided yet any isolated extract from only walnuts which are stable over time and independent of the moment of preparation. Additionally, there has not been provided yet any composition containing said extract showing a simultaneous anti-fungal, anti-microbial and anti-viral application, whose properties are kept stable over time.